Why "Lost. In Translation", you ask...

Well, simple expediency at some level: I needed a title for this blog and needed it quick. And since this is primarily going to be an attempt for me to keep all you, my friends, semi-regularly updated on my experiences while I am away in Kyoto this year, a reference to Sofia Coppola's 2003 masterpiece about foreigners in Japan didn't seem like a completely terrible idea. However, with luck, my life over the next few months will not resemble that of Bill Murray's and Scarlett Johansson's characters, and indeed even at this early a stage it doesn't: the accomodations are not nearly as posh, the jet-lag is not nearly as bad, and no Premium Fantasy Woman has knocked on my door. Indeed, life, even in these first couple of days, has been going relatively smoothly and with amazing efficiency, thanks largely to the folks here at Kyoto U.

And to give you a short synopsis of the story so far: I arrived on Monday night, was collected at my hotel by my host, Ohta-san, on Tuesday morning, got most of my paperwork sorted out with his wonderful help that very same day, and checked into my long-term housing that very evening. Yesterday, Wednesday, I got my office set up and my machine connected to the department network (big round of applause to the folks at Apple for making this as simple a process as it could ever be hoped to be). And I got caught up on the usual ton of email that accumulates in just a few days' absence. And today, Day Three, I have been working productively away. Things are of course not quite as simple as that - there is still more paperwork to be done, more things to set up, and so on... But all the major immediate tasks have been taken care of for now.

So over the next few posts I will try to flesh out some of the details of all this for you, and will share with you some of the interesting things that one notices in the first few days in a new place. And so until then...

Why "Lost. In Translation", you ask...

Well, simple expediency at some level: I needed a title for this blog and needed it quick. And since this is primarily going to be an attempt for me to keep all you, my friends, semi-regularly updated on my experiences while I am away in Kyoto this year, a reference to Sofia Coppola's 2003 masterpiece about foreigners in Japan didn't seem like a completely terrible idea. However, with luck, my life over the next few months will not resemble that of Bill Murray's and Scarlett Johansson's characters, and indeed even at this early a stage it doesn't: the accomodations are not nearly as posh, the jet-lag is not nearly as bad, and no Premium Fantasy Woman has knocked on my door. Indeed, life, even in these first couple of days, has been going relatively smoothly and with amazing efficiency, thanks largely to the folks here at Kyoto U.

And to give you a short synopsis of the story so far: I arrived on Monday night, was collected at my hotel by my host, Ohta-san, on Tuesday morning, got most of my paperwork sorted out with his wonderful help that very same day, and checked into my long-term housing that very evening. Yesterday, Wednesday, I got my office set up and my machine connected to the department network (big round of applause to the folks at Apple for making this as simple a process as it could ever be hoped to be). And I got caught up on the usual ton of email that accumulates in just a few days' absence. And today, Day Three, I have been working productively away. Things are of course not quite as simple as that - there is still more paperwork to be done, more things to set up, and so on... But all the major immediate tasks have been taken care of for now.

So over the next few posts I will try to flesh out some of the details of all this for you, and will share with you some of the interesting things that one notices in the first few days in a new place. And so until then...